Youth Pastor

martinsburg@herald-mail.com An arrest warrant has been issued for a woman accused of hitting a youth pastor with her car Monday afternoon and then driving more than 2 miles with him on her hood. A warrant was issued charging Patty Jane Moore of Falling Waters, W.Va., with one felony count of malicious wounding. She had not been picked up on the warrant Saturday evening although West Virginia State Police Trooper R.T. Dyroff, who is investigating the case, said he thinks he knows where Moore is. The incident began Monday when Moore came into the Marlowe Assembly of God church and demanded that her past six years' worth of tithes be returned to her or that the church pay her son's mortgage, Dyroff said.

HAGERSTOWN marlob@herald-mail.com It was inevitable that after more than 20 years as youth pastor at Maranatha Brethren Church, Ron Shank would begin to see the children of some of the youths he had worked with in his earlier days. "One of the keys to my ministry is that it isn't just to the teen but to the whole family," Shank said of the generational phenomenon he is now experiencing. "My job is to back up the work that parents are doing in the home. " That includes both the emotional and spiritual health of the teen and that can be daunting with all the pressures on young people these days.

CLEAR SPRING - Chris Mitchell is a man of God and an enthusiastic sports fan who has combined those two passions under one steeple. In late January, Mitchell organized a men's basketball league at Emmanuel Baptist Temple where he is youth pastor. The teams play Monday nights from 7 to 9 p.m. at 16221 National Pike east of Clear Spring. "My wife says the word fan is short for fanatic," Mitchell said. "But it's just that I love basketball and baseball, sports which promote both good exercise and teamwork.

marlob@herald-mail.com HAGERSTOWN - Brian Leimone would be the first to admit he was no scholar in high school. "I didn't want to go to college at all," said the new youth pastor at Virginia Avenue Baptist Church in Hagerstown. What turned him around was the realization that if he wanted to go into the ministry, which was his lifelong dream, education was the path. A North Carolina native, Leimone attended school in Philadelphia. Then, he entered Eastern University in Pennsylvania, graduating in May. He started at the church at 17426 Virginia Ave. right away as youth pastor.

HAGERSTOWN -- Jordan Dow's youth pastor was a major force in his life when he was in high school in Murfreesboro, Tenn. "He helped me in my growing up," Dow said. As the new youth pastor at Emmanuel Baptist Chapel west of Hagerstown, Dow intends to return the favor to any young people he encounters. Dow, 22, brings to the job an air of maturity that extends well beyond his years. "My ministry involves the whole Tri-State community -- Christian schools, public schools, home schools," Dow said.

Editor's note: Each Sunday, The Herald-Mail publishes "A Life Remembered. " This continuing series takes a look back - through the eyes of family, friends, co-workers and others - at a member of the community who died recently. Today's "A Life Remembered" is about John "Jay" Bressler Smith, who died Oct. 24 at the age of 62. His obituary appeared in the Oct. 26 editions of The Morning Herald and The Daily Mail. Pam Long was working at Carson's Jewelers when an interesting young man came in one day to buy some silver flatware.

CLEAR SPRING -- After a career in chemical engineering, teaching and writing industrial textbooks, Lee Ruby has accepted a call as youth/associate pastor at Hilltop Christian Fellowship. It was a long time coming, according to Ruby, who said he couldn't shake the feeling that the move was right for him despite the fact that he is 79 years old. "At Christmas 2007, I joined the youth group at both Hilltop and the church where I was evangelizing in Laurel, Md.," Ruby said.

Natasha Lynne Matthews and Joshua Andrew Carter were married Saturday, June 21, 2008, at Praise Fellowship Church of God, Fayetteville, N.C. The bride is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Dwight Matthews of Fayetteville. The bridegroom is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Gary W. Carter Jr. of Hagerstown. The bride is a 2008 graduate of The University of North Carolina at Pimbrook with a bachelor's degree in sociology. She is pursuing a career as a medical sales representative. The bridegroom is a graduate of St. Maria Goretti and Liberty University with a bachelor's degree in religion.

martinsburg@herald-mail.com MARTINSBURG, W.Va. - A Falling Waters, W.Va., woman charged with hitting a youth pastor with her car and then driving more than two miles with him on her hood has been involuntarily committed to a Virginia hospital for mental health reasons, her attorney said. Patty Jane Moore, who was charged with one count of felony malicious wounding in the October 2002 incident, has been committed since Nov. 23 at Winchester (Va.) Medical Center against her will, attorney Jim Rich said during a court hearing Monday.

HAGERSTOWN -- An idea born 10 years ago at the Hagerstown Church of the Nazarene had a double target -- a meaningful project for the congregation's teens and worthwhile activities for children living in a low-income housing neighborhood. "Steve Guertler, our youth pastor then, wanted the teens of the church to have a mission for the summer," said Vickie Hanshew, a church member who has been active with the weeklong program at Washington Garden Apartments for seven or eight years.

Bridge of Life , Hagerstown Aglow Lighthouse will host Fran Lance who will speak about her mission to the world at 10 a.m. Saturday, April 28, Call 240-385-5197 or email dagmar.yount@gmail.com . Hilltop Christian Fellowship , John and Melissa Miller will hold a marriage-enrichment seminar from 9:15 to 10:15 a.m.  on Sunday, and Sundays, April 29 and May 6. Locust Valley Bible Church , Middletown, Md., will host a Bible conference...

Alexander Kimble said he doesn't like being alone on weekends, so on Sunday night, he decided to take the Bridge of Life church up on its offer of a free Super Bowl party. Anyone could stop by the church Sunday at 14 S. Potomac St. and hang out in the hip surroundings of the church's youth room to watch the game between the New England Patriots and the New York Giants. The room had a decidedly youthful feel to it with its mishmash of furniture, dim lighting and posters dotting the walls.

A Franklin County church is putting its best foot (or feet, in this case) forward for the Waynesboro, Pa., community this weekend. Five Forks Brethren in Christ Church is hosting a free sneaker giveaway through Samaritan's Feet on Saturday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Samaritan's Feet, an international organization started more than six years ago by a formerly impoverished Nigerian man, will provide sneakers to the first 500 or so community members who...

A church group returning Sunday morning from a youth conference in Johnstown, Pa., escaped serious injury when the passenger van in which they were riding blew a tire and overturned, rolling down an embankment off eastbound Interstate 70, west of Clear Spring, fire and church officials said. Everyone was OK, said Pastor Josh Fretz with Maranatha Brethren Church on Scott Hill Drive, east of Hagerstown. Two youths from Maranatha; seven teens from Community Grace Brethren Church in Greencastle, Pa.; and Community Grace's youth pastor and his wife were in the van, Fretz said.

Tyree Sterling, 32, of Hagerstown acknowledged that some people find the concept of Christian hip-hop to be a contradiction. Christianity encourages living a moral life of serving others, but hip-hop, well, its values are very different. "There's four things you find in secular rap - sex, drugs, violence, self-image," Sterling said during a recent visit to The Herald-Mail. "This CD actually reaches people - grandmas, dads. People who don't like hip-hop, they do buy this CD. " By "this CD," Sterling means "Rock Wit It," a collection of 12 songs or spoken tracks he released in October.

CLEAR SPRING -- After a career in chemical engineering, teaching and writing industrial textbooks, Lee Ruby has accepted a call as youth/associate pastor at Hilltop Christian Fellowship. It was a long time coming, according to Ruby, who said he couldn't shake the feeling that the move was right for him despite the fact that he is 79 years old. "At Christmas 2007, I joined the youth group at both Hilltop and the church where I was evangelizing in Laurel, Md.," Ruby said.

HAGERSTOWN -- Jordan Dow's youth pastor was a major force in his life when he was in high school in Murfreesboro, Tenn. "He helped me in my growing up," Dow said. As the new youth pastor at Emmanuel Baptist Chapel west of Hagerstown, Dow intends to return the favor to any young people he encounters. Dow, 22, brings to the job an air of maturity that extends well beyond his years. "My ministry involves the whole Tri-State community -- Christian schools, public schools, home schools," Dow said.

HAGERSTOWN -- An idea born 10 years ago at the Hagerstown Church of the Nazarene had a double target -- a meaningful project for the congregation's teens and worthwhile activities for children living in a low-income housing neighborhood. "Steve Guertler, our youth pastor then, wanted the teens of the church to have a mission for the summer," said Vickie Hanshew, a church member who has been active with the weeklong program at Washington Garden Apartments for seven or eight years.

Natasha Lynne Matthews and Joshua Andrew Carter were married Saturday, June 21, 2008, at Praise Fellowship Church of God, Fayetteville, N.C. The bride is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Dwight Matthews of Fayetteville. The bridegroom is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Gary W. Carter Jr. of Hagerstown. The bride is a 2008 graduate of The University of North Carolina at Pimbrook with a bachelor's degree in sociology. She is pursuing a career as a medical sales representative. The bridegroom is a graduate of St. Maria Goretti and Liberty University with a bachelor's degree in religion.

HAGERSTOWN -- When former Brook Lane chaplain Deryl Fleming left last February after 16 years at the post, he said he wanted to experience a more traditional congregation. Now his replacement, Chaplain Ron Shank, is doing just the opposite. After 24 years as youth pastor at Maranatha Brethren Church in Hagerstown, Shank has taken on the rather unique congregation at Brook Lane - patients, youth and staff. "This is my first venue of this kind," Shank said. "The people I minister to here are constantly changing.